The Traveler's Guide to the Universe
by Fan Fictional Authoress
Summary: My sister had made it seem so easy, being an explorer and star-grapher. I wanted to go out there so badly, and she wanted to be a professor but there was no job openings. We were identical twins before I left and it was so perfect! But I left for the great big universe and everyone died, everything changed. I travel with the one who killed them, but he is all I have left of home.
1. Pilot

**_All translations, explanations, advertisements, and thought processes are at the end of the chapter._**

**____****Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

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_******Canton du Valais********. Late Afternoon. July 25th in the early 15th century.**_

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Nothing strange ever happened in Valais, absolutely nothing. Even if something strange _did_ happen, the townsfolk made sure that it didn't stay for long. Maybe that was why they were chasing a woman with pitchforks and torches yelling, "Sorcery! Black magic! Witch be gone!" And maybe, that was why they were so glad when the women fled into her very strange and very large clothes closet and left in just the same fashion as she came, the clothes closet slowly disappearing with a queer sort of whooshing sound.

_Not a trace of either the woman or the clothes closet was left behind._

Maybe that was why the townsfolk let out a cheer that the woman, the clothes closet, and those _things_ would bother them no longer. Of course, they conveniently forgot some facts. The aforementioned "things" were in no way connected to the woman that they just chased away and if it wasn't for her, they would have all become piles of goop, caused by the digestive juices of the alien species of intelligent plant-life that sought to invade, conquer, and destroy all life-as-they-knew-it.

As far as they knew, a witch came to their town and cursed their lovely, new, and very exotic-looking plants, making them into man-eating monsters. The witch had destroyed their plants by using some_ unknown, glowing, humming, stick-like contraption_. She didn't do this immediately, of course. She first tricked them into becoming their friends; she ate with them, talked with them, and worked with them, even though it was clear that she was a noble of some sort, given by her clothes and how much money she had. They-as much as they loathed to admit it-trusted her.

Then she grew interested in their new plants. She startled upon seeing them and frowned, asking, "What plants are these and how did you attain them?" No one knew, they told her, no one knew where they came from or what they were. They just appeared one day in their gardens and were so lovely looking, no one had the heart to tear them out, even when it killed off their other plants seemingly without remorse, if plants could feel remorse.

This was when the first sign of trouble appeared. She whipped out that contraption and waved it over one of the flowers before growing a deathly pale. "This... this is impossible! Some how a Jaggrabell from Hortisphere pollinated with a Marorda plant from Hondran; there is no telling what it has bloomed into!" She then went into a frenzy, trying to uproot all their plants and destroying them as much as possible. They had to put her in a strongly locked room until she calmed down, but by then her evil spell had spread to all their flowers.

They uprooted themselves, revealing a plant monster with those beautiful flowers for hair. The flower-creatures than started running around trying to eat every person in sight. When they caught sight of their mistress-who must've gotten out of her cell with the stick-like contraption-they started _talking_. The witch took off running after a minute or two towards the fields with the plants in close pursuit. She led them-the plants-into Monsieur Boone's-bless his soul-decrepit barn. There the witch destroyed the plants in what the townspeople assumed was a ritual gone wrong.

She used the unknown contraption to open what was once thought a well-locked trap door, releasing stones upon stones of moldy hay on top of the once-normal-flowers. Then with a loud cry she held up what looked like a small and squared perfume bottle which somehow released a flame. She waved her contraption over it and the flames shot out unto the hay, igniting all the hay and flower-creatures aflame.

The townspeople were glad that the ritual had, somehow, went wrong, because it would have, no doubt, caused more chaos and destruction if it had been successful instead. They were relieved that she was now gone, and if she ever showed her face again, they vowed, she would regret it. For nothing strange happened in Valais, for if it did, it was immediately snuffed out.

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_**Time Vortex.**_

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"Stupid humans, always suspicious of those who look different yet obviously mean no harm, but always so trusting of innocuous and ordinary-looking death traps that wish to eat them. 'Do not harm our plants! How dare you uproot them! You made them like this with your witchcraft and sorcery!' What a hassle, this is why I will never have children...well, one of the reasons anyway." A blond woman let out a low ho-hum as she circle to the other side of the console in the TARDIS.

"Perhaps I should take a brake from the middle-ages, fascinating though it is." She tinkered with the dials, switches, and buttons on the console for several long minutes, before finally settling on a fixed set of coordinates. But before she pressed the button that would send her to those coordinates, she paused, debating if she really should go there. After all, wasn't she the one who always told her sister that sometimes it was best to leave the humans' lives as they were?

"Well, I always was a hypocrite..." The blonde mumbled before deliberately pressing the button, "besides, maybe Gideon missed me." Gideon was an intelligent seven-year-old boy who had once caught her in the act of stopping an alien, who could have been the offspring of a giant reptile and amphibian once the human disguise of his baby-sitter was removed, from eating his pet cow, Bessie. Gideon lived out in the country with his grandparents on their farm. He was obsessed with the stars and aliens, so instead of having a hysterical child like she had expected, she got a devoted fan and self-proclaimed side-kick.

"Maybe he has out-grown the nick-name 'Wanda' by now or, better yet, still remembers me." She chuckled, "Imagine his face when I tell him that I don't want go by 'Wanda' anymore, but 'The Wanderer' instead or he won't be able to travel with me! He probably take me seriously, knowing him!" She let out a bark of laughter at the very vivid picture of Gideon's bewildered expression as she clumsily passed the console, unable to walk properly from the force of her good humor. She collapsed into the pilot's chair gasping and choking with a giggle escaping once in a while. Her good humor didn't lessen once she calmed down, but she felt that it was only right that she would try to see if she could finally locate where the manual was.

She had been having problems with a number of things on the TARDIS, like the chameleon circuit for one and the mean free path tracker for another. To be honest, the blonde could not care less about fixing the chameleon circuit than she did now unless she ended up in a furniture store or something. She was far more concerned about the path tracker, without it working properly, she was far more likely to run into something in the time vortex, like temporal space junk. This was a problem that she had been having for a while.

In fact, it was because of this problem that the chameleon circuit was broken. The woman had been working on the intercom so if the TARDIS's voice interface had picked up any problems while the blonde was indisposed of at the moment, she would be alerted and able to do something. But maybe, it was more of the manual's fault that the mean free path tracker's, since some of the jargon was a bit beyond her at times, but it was nothing that the blonde couldn't handle. Books, sometimes confusing manuals or not, were her life.

"Tarus, keep the coordinates constant and man the console until we either arrive or I come back, please." The TARDIS's avatar appeared, its back facing the blonde.

"The Traveler would be best advised to search in the library for the manual in section research. The Traveler has misplaced the manual during her period of long sleep deprivation. "

"Oh, thank you, Tarus." The avatar, now dubbed Tarus, made no response other than to request the Traveler adjust a knob and press a button on her way out since she was closer. Tarus had black hair and silver eyes, much like the Traveler's twin sister. In fact, that was exactly what form the TARDIS choose to appear as, since that was who the blonde was most fond of. They could have been mistaken for the same person except her twins prefer more colorful clothes while Tarus always appeared wearing a white tunic and loose breeches with a sort of ballet flats on its feet.

The Traveler had called her TARDIS "Tarus" ever since she was little, unable to pronounce its "proper" title, TARDIS model 57. Hence why her family's TARDIS was the one with an actual name like space ships had or human boats, which was pretty unusual since most were simply called as they were, TARDIS, with a few exceptions. The Traveler personally found it a little dull and sad, all TARDISes had personalities and quirks just like people and yet were not even worthy of receiving their own name according to some people.

The blonde snorted, "Well they can just go and kiss an-"

"The Traveler would be advised to brace herself," Tarus's voice came in through the intercom.

"Brace myself?! Brace myself on _what_?!" The Traveler asked, pressing against a wall, only to be thrown to the floor almost instantly. She made a move to get up, only to be forced to the ground once again during the second impact.

"We have arrived. Tarus is now signing off," The avatar stated matter-of-factly as the Traveler managed to pick herself up and off of the floor.

"_Thanks,_" She deadpanned, stumbling her way back into the control room. "I should really get the mean free path tracker fixed, if this is going to happen every time I fly with it broken... Just what did we run into though? That wasn't your run-of-the-mill turbulence..." The blonde stood next to the monator which was dark at the moment, her grey eyes gazed back at her as she tried to turn on the screen. It was on according to a small blue light on the console, but the screen was still dark. She slapped the lower-right hand corner with almost no bite behind the action. The monitor stalled for a moment more before showing the outside of the TARDIS.

"Was that what we hit in the vortex or did we just slam into that after we came out of the vortex?" The Traveler asked, eying what appeared to be either a very small blue shack or a very big blue out-house-like structure. "Let's zoom in here, shall we?" She asked rhetorically before typing in the commands, the screen now showing the blue box more clearly. It read:

**_Police Public Calls Box._**

"Wait, weren't they supposed to be red and in England? Did I reverse the coordinates again?" The Traveler exclaimed, exasperated with herself. "You would think that I would learn by now which was latitude and which was longitude..."

_Be-beep._

The Traveler froze, not daring to breathe as she stared at a small flashing light and the button next to it.

_Be-beep!_

It chirped again only more insistently this time. The grey-eyed woman inched her way just out of the monitor's view and hesitantly pressed the button before ducking down for good measure. "Hello, is anyone there, anyone at all?" The owner of the voice asking the question was breathlessly excited, hopeful, and cautious all at once, as if the speaker was hoping that someone really was in what appeared to be a random wardrobe that happened to be floating out in space-in the time-vortex- but didn't want to get his-for the voice sounded like to belonged to male-hopes up to high in case he was wrong.

The Traveler didn't notice; she was too busy having a panic attack.

'That police phone box isn't just a police phone box, it is a TARDIS disguised as a police phone box while actually containing the authorities!' She fretted, 'I need to get out of here, I cannot face my twin's disappoint at the life swap being finished and my family's shame of me stealing the family TARDIS and replacing it with a government issued one instead so I wouldn't be tracked. Technically, I have been impersonating an official explorer and star-grapher, i.e. my sister. Chances are, if I'm caught, then she will be caught and charged the less severe crime of impersonating a scribe and theory-professor of one of the major courses at the academy, me!'

The Traveler held her breath, waiting for them to storm in through the door with their TARDIS master-key that all the law officials were authorized to carry. When they didn't, the blonde grew puzzled. 'Why are they not doing anything? Did they leave?' The Traveler started to slowly get up, about to take a peek at the monitor screen, when the voice from before started talking again. "If there is anyone in there, I am letting you know that I am going to attempt to board. I mean no harm; I will bring medical aid if you need it too, since I am guessing that you must be injured if you are unable to show yourself after connecting the communication's link."

With another _Be-beep, _he disconnected the link and the Traveler scrambled to her feet. 'I've got to leave, _now._' The blonde frantically checked the monitor and wasn't comforted by what she saw. She was right when she guessed that the voice belonged to a man, a time lord who most likely was one of their people's peace-keepers, police, government officials, officers, what _ever_ the human term was. Either way, he was swiftly making his way over to her TARDIS and would be knocking on its door any second now.

"Come on, come on," she begged as she worked on the console in a frenzied manner. "Come on, Baby, work with me!" A sharp sounding _be-beep _went off and a small screen popped up in the middle of the monitor, hiding the time lord from view.

It read: **ERROR CODE: 590632-Alpha. Please consult your manual.**

The woman let out a roar of frustration and pounded her fist against the console, "No, no, no!" She could almost here the jingle of keys as she saw the man pull them out of his pocket. 'What to do, what to do?' The Traveler dithered around the console with the word, think, being repeated several times in her head as she paced back and forth. Her mind raced through all the override codes that she memorized, trying to find one that would fit.

"Ah, there we go. Hello? I am going to attempt to unlock the door; I am _unarmed_ and _not_ a threat." Desperate, the blonde lunged at the console an typed in the only code she could of at the moment, the reset code. The on code that her sister told her time and time again to never use except in the most dire of circumstances. The Traveler definitely considered this a dire circumstance with the law official practically walking in through the front door ready to take her back home...to prison.

No, she would not let that happen.

With a definitive click, the Traveler pressed the last button and the TARDIS let out a loud hum, a hum that was so strong, she could feel it reverberate through out her whole body. There was another _be-beep_ that sounded almost piercing as another screen popped up:

**ERROR CODE OVERRIDED: C****ommand?**

"Yes, yes, yes..." She muttered, "Leave this place. Go to another planet, galaxy, universe, I don't care, just have it be somewhere far, far away from here before he gets the signal... Before you are forced to reboot..." The woman randomly typed in a destination and was gratified when the familiar whooshing sound of the TARDIS could be heard. All the stress and fear attacked at that one moment and she sank to her knees on the floor. The Traveler let out a sob and covered her mouth with a trembling hand.

"I'm sorry," she choked out. "I'm so sorry, Tarus." The TARDIS let out a groan as it hurtled through the vortex, already starting to prepare for the rebooting process which would not start until they had landed safely. Once they landed there, the Traveler would be stranded there for an indefinite period of time, then the TARDIS would have to reboot, restart, and relearn.

Everything.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Please, I'm sorry!" The Traveler wept, "Forgive this foolish time lady, but I couldn't let him take you! I couldn't let him catch us, because I didn't want this to end... So selfish!"

"The Traveler would be advise to find the manual. It is located in the library in the section research. Also, the Thinker has-" Here Tarus the avatar was cut off in a burst of static and fizzled out of existence for a brief moment before coming. "-data...hidden...ordered me to inform...check the logs if.. situation...dire enough...reset."

"I'm so sorry, Tarus."

"...Traveler find logs..." Tarus managed to get out one last time before disappearing completely. The TARDIS slowly shut down until only the emergency power was left on and the Traveler was left with only herself bathed in the glow of the mauve emergency lightening. She broke down and wept bitterly on the floor for the loss of Tarus, the original one.

The Tarus who had always been with her family since before the time lady who once was the Thinker and her twin who once was the Traveler were born. The Tarus who was willing to call the Thinker as her pilot's name, the Traveler. The Tarus who dealt with a "theory pilot," a pilot who only knew how to drive from what the real Traveler had told her and what she had read. The Tarus who finally helped her turn back from an unknown race called the Qwerts from that one journey back in the beginning of time. The Tarus who had been there for all of her journeys and her sister's as well.

That Tarus would be no more and they-no, _she, _since Tarus didn't make it-successfully evaded capture.

"Some consolation prize..." She laughed bitterly, "I better make it worth it by find that manual and those stupid logs Tarus wanted me to find..." And so she thought that it was over, that since that time lord wouldn't be able to track a dead signal that he would simply give up and move on to other things. Surely, bigger things than a simple "renegade" woman and her TARDIS would capture his attention.

But she didn't know, she had remained oblivious for all those years of the war that ravaged time and space, killing all of the time lords and daleks except for a small few who managed to escape that fate.

But she didn't hear, the time lord's quiet curse that wasn't of a law official who just lost the trail of his criminal, but that of a lonely man who had just realized that he _wasn't_ alone, only to have the other simply vanish.

_And most of all, she didn't see._

She didn't see him reach out as if to pull her TARDIS back from where it left to with such a look of a starving man brought to a banquet table only to find it empty of any food. She didn't see that time lord save her TARDIS's energy signature into his TARDIS's memory banks and cry out in despair when he tried to track down her location only to find that he could not. And she most certainly didn't see the almost frighteningly stubborn and determined expression on that time lord's face as he vowed to himself to never give up, to _never stop _until he hunted down that TARDIS and its pilot. If she did she may have likened it to looking into the Untempered Schism: people who saw it either got inspired, ran away, or went mad.

It said that the chase was on and that he _was_ going to find that TARDIS and pilot even if it was the last thing he did.

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**To Be Continued...**

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_**Explanations: **_*I chose Valais because it had previous history of witch hunts during that time. No that that was the only reason, I want some place French as well, so I settle for a canton in Switzerland that was dominated by the French.

*The Traveler does not own a sonic screwdriver. It is actually a sonic laser pointer that her twin gave her back when the Traveler was actually the Thinker, a professor at the academy. It was very useful.

*That perfume bottle that the townspeople were talking about was actually a lighter.

*The Jaggerabell and Maronda plants actually do exist in Doctor Who cannon, they are just only briefly mentioned in passing in the case of the first one or are only found in the comics in the case of the second. There is no hybrid though, I made that part up. :)

*The Wanderer is the name that the Traveler and the Thinker used as a nickname for the "super-time-lady-extraordinaire" they claimed they became when they put their talents together for a common goal when they were younger. It is now the Traveler's (really the Thinker's) alias.

*All technological terms about the TARDISes was found on a beautiful little site called the TARDIS technical index. Except for the reset code, I made that up, unless there actually _is_ a reset code that I am unaware of, in that case, it is a coincidence.

*Yes, TARDISes do have avatars. The Doctor's Tardis had one when he was unwell and it could assume any form. Just to be sure though, the Traveler has the updated model 57 instead of the model 40.

_**Advertisements:**_

**TITLE: **A Treasured Discovery

**AUTHOR: **LizzieXX

**ID: **8860941

**SUMMARY: **9/OC(friendship plus) -Time Lady- Deep in the pits of Van Statten's museum lies a second alien, but not just ANY alien, a Time Lady, the Angel. Fallen to Earth with the Dalek she has survived the Time War. But there's something…different…about her, special even. What is it? The Doctor is certainly curious to find out. First in the Heart of Time Saga.

**OPINION:** Helped inspire me to write my own Doctor Who fan fiction. :) I love the character Angel, but I am slightly doubtful that anyone would be able to forgive another person for killing off the rest of their species, but maybe that's just me. WARNING: It's a little bit cheesy, for those of you who despise anything at all that even faintly reminds them of a chick flick. For the rest of you readers (I.E. most of the female population) enjoy.

_**Thought Process:** _What a lovely way to start off summer vacation, yes? This Fan Fiction is just a break from the _Lord of the Rings_ so I don't burn out on 'A Ring of Endless Light' or my others. This is also a way for me to test the waters in trying to write in this fandom and see how I do, since I am currently in a _Doctor Who_ phase. My Animation and Interactive Design Teacher could tell when I drew a TARDIS on photoshop for my end of the year final. *Sheepish grin.*

Tell me how you think and whether or not I should continue this thing.

Happy Thursday,

FFA, the Fan Fictional Authoress

_Date Submitted: Thursday, June 6, 2013._


	2. Alliteration: Telepathic Talking Trees

**_All translations, explanations, advertisements, and thought processes are at the end of the chapter._**

**____****Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.**

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**____****An Unnamed Planet at an Unknown Time.**

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She was gone, the Traveler knew this, but the pain did not decrease with this knowledge. She remained in her kneeling position, listless and full of remorse. Her tears had long since dried out and her face was red and blotchy, as if she was allergic to crying, unused to it as she was, since she was more prone to laughing and smiling. 'I killed her; I killed Tarus,' and with that thought, the Traveler let out another dry sob. 'I'm such a mess, I can't even be arsed to go find that blasted manual and those logs... I'm so tired... and she's so _cold_...'

The Traveler ran her hands along the console, the rotor, the columns that looked like trees, everything near by that she could get her hands on, nothing, no warmth. There was no comforting hum or reassuring presence in the back of her mind like there usually was, just an absence, no one was home. The traveler realized she was on her own completely now.

Time for her to move on and do what her sister requested her to do if this ever happened, find those logs! Rubbing her face with the back of her arm and sniffling occasionally, the woman got off the floor and slowly made her way out of the control room. She ran her hand against the wall as she walked down the hallway, counting the doors until she reached number thirty-one. It was painted a vivid green, her sister's room; she paused right beside it and didn't move, merely tracing the word that was on it. She started spelling under her breath, "Z...E...E...T...A... Zeeta..."

The Traveler rested her head against the door and sighed, "Zeeta, where has the time gone? Did you hide your log in there?" The Traveler would have stood there for a long time if something didn't brush against her legs with a small, "_lee-own_." She looked down to see a small colorful bird-like creature that cocked its head as it looked at her and let out another _lee-own._

"There you are, Griffle. I was wondering where you ran off to you silly little Paean!" A Paean was a creature that was similar to a griffin in much the same way grass was similar to apple-grass, the same but with a few differences. The paeans had the same body structure as the griffins, but the front legs were more feline than avian. The avian part, instead of an eagle, was a peafowl, just with colors of a more rich variety that didn't fade after the third year. Paeans also were no where close to being the size of a lion, eagle, or even a mere peafowl; they were much closer in size to your average house cat.

Also unlike the griffin, they couldn't really _fly_, they could do a bit more than gliding and could also hover; a far cry better than sugar gliders and flying squirrels, but not much better than those grasshopper-locust-things. Paeans were not as disgusting and were most certain not as terrifying to those bug-a-phobes of the universe. Paeans were also, thankfully, not a vocal as the peafowl and were easily domesticated since they were as intelligent as a cat and just as agreeable.

Griffle actually belonged to the Traveler's sister who was posing as the Thinker. The Thinker was having her watch over Griffle officially, but they both knew that it was Griffle who was truly doing all the watching, the stubborn paean. The Traveler was grateful for him though, without Griffle, things would definitely be much, much harder. The loneliness might've been too much for the traveler to bear, but the small, runt of a paean made it just a bit easier.

"Should we go in there first, Griffle?" The Traveler ask, not really expecting an answer. While paeans were very, _very_ clever, they weren't-technecially-sentient beings. They might as well have been though, especially during those moments when Griffle almost seemed to have not just heard, but _understood_ what the Traveler had told him when she mindlessly chatted to him.

They were time when it was eerie too, like when the Traveler first saw Griffle follow a very complex request for the Thinker, one that most paean wouldn't understand. When asked, the Thinker only said it was a connection thing, like with the TARDIS, plus Griffle really liked her and was willing to comply with it. She said that it was less of a problem of understand and more of an issue of the measure of the mixture of friendship, trust, and love. Treat him like you would treat the person who loved the most and he would return it tenfold, such was the loyalty of the paeans.

As it was, Griffle only blinked and scratched at the door with his beak, clearly eager to enter the room of the love of his life, which hadn't been open since the last time the Thinker had shut it, a respect of her sister's privacy, you know? But desperate times called for desperate measures and if Tarus wasn't dead, the Traveler wouldn't even be _thinking_ of doing this, let alone actually _doing_ it.

The door open easily and the lights automatically turned on; they were gravity globes, made in miniature, about the size of her fist. They were a light blue in color and benignly floated around in the room. The room was made out of a smooth metal that was like chrome only in a beautiful teal blue that can from a metal foreign even to the Traveler, it was obviously from a planet that she had not been to yet. The floor, ceiling, and walls consisted of tiles from that same strange metal and in between the tiles consisted a glowing electric blue adhesive that kept the tiles together and in the place where they were supposed to be.

The door, funnily enough, was _round_ instead of the rectangles that the rest on the door seemed to consist of. Plants made their home in this room, but were not trying to take over like in natural settings that they otherwise seemed wont to do. There were metal insects and avians flittering and fluttering around in the room; there appeared to be only one type of insect and a select few species of avains.

The insects had long, thin bodies, very large eyes, and two long pairs of wings that fluttered independently of each other. They varied in color from blue to green to red to black. They zoomed around the room at a fast pace zipping around overhead, but the Traveler felt no worry about them bumping into her as the stayed up by the ceiling which was twice her height.

One species of the avians that were in the room was a very small and flighty titch of a puff ball. It was about the size of her index, middle, and ring finger put together and just about as long. The beak was long and thin, and the Traveler was reminded of those smooth black knitting needles that the Thinker used to use to make a scarf or something when she had a whole bunch of nervous energy and time. When these small green and grey creatures flew, their wings made a distinct humming noise from the speed that they were flapping at.

The next avian species was a rounder and plump type. It was about the size of a teacup and it loved to clump together with others of its kind. Its call was a distinctive _cheek-a-dee-ee-ee,_ and it loved to pause politely to wait for an answer before calling again. Its plumage was a lovely smattering or black, white, grey, and tan. The last bird was plain brown with a reddish-brown rump and tail. The throat was white and the underparts were grey-brown.

This avian, while having a metal that was plainer than the others, had a sweet song that out shown its competitors. This metal-feathered vocalist sang what must've been some of its more natural songs, but then once in a while it sang popular lullabies from Gallifrey, songs that her sister made lyrics to when they used to be without words...

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_Burnt orange skies with grey wisps of clouds flying..._

I closed my eyes, remembering the rusty-tangerine color that I often saw each time I looked up and over to the horizon. Our two suns at different locations as they went through their nine hour time in the sky with the moon, Pazithi Gallifreya, going through her twenty-seven day orbit, bright enough to be seen while our other moon hides almost shyly. Often the sky also flashed purple, green, and yellow lights, and sometimes, the sky flashed the soft baby-blue that humans always saw up in their sky.

_Winds whisper through the silver leaves with a soft sighing..._

I remembered the scintillating, metallic-esque foliage as they glimmered at night, sending rays of the two moons' soft glow as it reflected off of them. Those steel-colored leaves grew on the Kaden-Wood trees. Their natural color was silver, but it could appear to set itself aflame in the suns-light, varying from angry-orange, golden-yellow, scarlet-red, and occasional a redish-violet. When the wind blew through it most times, they sighed in various pitches, but when the autumn zephyrs blew through and around them, they sang as they were caressed by the gentle wind.

_Red grasses brush against our legs as we dance slowly..._

I remembered the feel of the grass, long that it was, as Zeeta or, as most referred to her as, Traveler-the _real_ one, not me-spun in slow, lazy circles. Her hair blowing from the soft zephyrs as they blew gently on the warm autumn air. She loves to sing in chorus with the Kaden-Wood trees at those times, as she swayed with them in the wind. _"Join me, join me..."_ She would call, urging me to twirl and instruct me in how to be weightless against the wind so I could dance in it with her, like a way-ward Schlenk blossom.

_My love lasts forever and comes while I remember fondly..._

I was back in the golden fields of the Continent of Serene Isolation near the Ruins of Temple Rythia. The Maldor trees crying out in the own haunting way, but not quite as wistfully or pining as the Kaden-Wood trees; the bronze leave writhing and shivering as the trees swayed slightly. The bronze trees let out a keening lament as if grieving over the lost city and its absent time lords and Gallifreyans. They never usually came here, so far away from civilization and most of the outsiders were either in the wastelands, forests, or mountains.

I saw her as she closed her eyes and lamented with the trees, giving voice to their melancholy song, _"That day has gone and they are no longer...We are forsaken, there's no time anymore...Life will pass us by and leave us resigned...We are forsaken, only ruins stay behind..."_ Her voice wavered as it rose and fell, mourning their loss and loneliness. She would sing with a sort of controlled tremulousness, her voice ached with vulnerability, but never broke.

_Snowflakes that drift from the heavens like fallen stars..._

Snow fell from the skies very rarely, even though we were in the middle of what was considered an ice age, since rain was few and far between. My breath may not have visibly fogged the air in front of me, but I knew that this was because of the cooler body temperature I had compared to other live forms. The fragile flakes rested on my eyelashes as they fluttered rapidly, blinking to keep the snow flakes out of my eyes. When I closed my eyelids I felt the water crystals carefully land there and melt slowly. I rolled onto my stomach in the snow and off the ground, scoping the white mountain sides for my sister.

_"Zeeta... Zeeta, where are you?"_ I called out and I wandered around the trees, searching for her. I would have walked right past her if she hadn't swung down to meet me, her knees bent around a tree branch in much the same way as a human child would hang from the monkey bars. With strength in her arms and back, characteristic of her since she spent much times climb and sometimes only able to use her upper arm strength, she lifted me off and up the ground, with not much effort on her part seemingly, and set me on the branch next to her before straightening upright beside me. She had laughed so hard and so long at my startled and shell-shocked expression.

_And catching shimmering beatitude flies in glass jars..._

I could almost smell the crisp night air and the scent of fragrant, blue, bell-like flowers. The flashing bugs came to the mountains only a few times every four seasons out of our twenty-four. It was a favorite game for my sister and me to go catch these glistening and glittering creatures in fogged stained-glass jars. The jars were never in a plain white or yellow. They came in a variety of colors like reds, blues, greens, oranges, purples, and other colors that were outside of the color range of most species. The beatitude flies only came out (or maybe were only easy to find) after the suns set and it became night. For that short period of time, the phosphorescent bodies were truly visible and shone clear and bight in the dim light of the moons.

Our laughter rang in the fields as we listened for the tell-tale _chir-reep! chir-re-eep! _of those gorgeous flies, hard to catch but so beautiful to behold in those glass jars, An hour before dawn, just when the other beatitude flies were leaving, we released the ones we caught all at once. A glorious blizzard and vortex of light occurred from the flies dancing in the night air. The symphony of the cries of _chir_-_reep!_ _chir-re-eep! _surrounded us. I don't think for one moment that I would ever forget those days, every time I looked up at my bedroom ceiling and the ceiling of the control of the TARDIS, I would see the lights and remember.

Tarus knew my most treasure memories and tried to recreate them as much as possible, hence the lights on the dark ceiling one could mistake for star, but I knew were meant to be beatitude flies. The fogged stained-glass jars that hung in my room flickered and shined like they had those bugs inside them. No, I would not forget...

The bird warbled and changed the tune of the song, cutting my reminiscing short. I blinked rapidly before giving myself a good shake to get rid of the lingering memories in my head. I needed to find those logs. On the far wall, there were numerous shelves that filled and occupied said wall completely. That part of the room was mess, but not in a I-am-a-slob-and-I-never-have-any -organizational-skills way. It was more like the everything-interests-me-at-the-same-time -and-I-also-kind-of-ran-out-of-space-to-sort-out -all-of-these-treasures way. There were bauble, trinkets, paperweights, alien musical instruments,shiny and glowing rocks, drawing, sketches of ideas, maps, small wood carvings of creatures, machinery, coils of wiring, and many books and scrolls.

The logs could, quite literally, be anywhere in that mess on the shelves.

I looked at Griffle, "Any idea where she would put the logs?" The paean merely blinked up at me before scratching behind his ear. "I'll take that as a 'no.' I might as well start sorting..." I sighed before gingerly tugging the book carefully off the shelves and setting them on the floor. Sitting next to them, I lifted up the first book and skimmed through it briefly before coming to the conclusion that it wasn't Zeeta's logs. I skimmed through the next book and decided that while my sister's copy of the manual-the one that she had crossed off most of the instructions and had her advise written there instead-was nice, it was not what I was looking for exactly. I still put it in the 'keeping' pile though, as it might be useful later...

* * *

After sifting through many books that all varied drastically in topics, I finally found the logs of my sister. The book was thick, many hundreds of pages long, and was filled with drawing notes, and logs of my sister in her neat writing. There was no order in the logs and it was randomly put together, her entries were sorted by date, but that was it. Within those dates, there were many pages filled with information that was all squeezed in there. This was yet another similarity both my sister and I shared. We both wrote practically everything in our journals at the end of the day with no order to go by except for the date.

I would have my work cut out for me by having to carefully read through all of her logs until I found what I was looking for. This was no chore; however, I would relish this as another connection to my sister. This log began at her first adventure on the TARDIS and ended on the last one, as was her tradition. To the extent of my knowledge, she had a total of three log books: one for home, one for her new job pretending to be me, and the one I held in my hand at this very moment. I have had a total of thirteen log books, most were one that held my research notes and entries for my previous job, the est were like my sister's. I have six personal one and seven professional.

The professional ones I had left in my sister's care to help her and guide her; the rest were in my room on the TARDIS. One was about my childhood and adventures with my sister. Another was about my school life and lessons that I remembered. A third was about my personal life while I was the Thinker. A fourth was about my more adult travel with my sister on Gallifrey and the adventure with her on the TARDIS together. The fifth is about my adventure as the Traveler and the Wanderer and it contained everything about every where and time I have been to. The sixth and final one is empty, waiting to be filled about the next chapter in my life. One that would always remain empty until I had settled down or found my companion, not one for just the TARDIS, a more _permanent_ one, if you know what I mean.

That would be the one that contained my final adventure, the life I hoped to have as a mother and a spouse.

I suspected that my sister might already be on her fourth book now, considering the situation of why we _really_ traded places, if we were being honest with ourselves: Leucas. The man _I_ was supposed to marry as my role of the oldest daughter. Zeeta was supposed to be the one who continued on in life doing as she wished, while the role of the eldest dictated me in marrying another family, a more powerful one. I didn't love him; my sister did and he was the only thing she loved more than the stars. She was willing to give up her freedom of traveling to be by his side forever.

_We were identical._

No one but Leucas ever knew, since he needed to know who he was truly going to be spending the rest of his life with. He helped us, since he was deeply touched that Zeeta would give up everything to be with him. The last I heard, and saw, was that they were the happiest couple that had an arranged marriage in my family for a long while. My parents loved each other, but it had apparently taken many decades for that love to develop. I was going to be an aunt; this I knew beyond a doubt. She was happy now, even if her wings were clipped. I could only hope that I could find someone that could make me feel like that and would love me too, a Leucas of my own...

I shook my head and returned all of the books, nix the logs and my sister's copy of the manual. These books went into the control room on the jump seat. I looked at the doors that led outside the TARDIS, curiously. I had no clue where Tarus choose as a safe destination-instead of the random coordinates I had given-for the reboot, but I knew that it had to be a place my sister had been to before and set as a default. We-_I_ was not on Gallifrey, but where was I then, if not there?

Biting my lip, I slowly opened the door and peeked my head cautiously outside it. Snow softly blew into the TARDIS, making a barely audible hiss to my enhanced hearing as the large flakes landed on the TARDIS floor. It was cold, I knew this was true, even if I couldn't really feel it. I didn't know who or what was around, so it would be very prudent if I dressed up as if I _could_ feel it. I went to the TARDIS wardrobe-_down the hall, second right into the green and brown forest-like hallway, door number five-_and picked out some nice warm looking clothes.

I choose the following: a warm Ursa-fur coat (an Ursa looked remarkably similar to the Earth bear, which wasn't that surprising considering they were closely related), thick fur boots, fluffy gloves, a hat, and a scarf. I didn't know how long I would be out there, best to be prepared. I peeked outside of the TARDIS again, my nose twitching, before I stuck out my tongue, tasting the air.

_-10 degrees Celsius, Nitrogen at 66.08%, Oxygen at 32.95%, Argon at 0.93%, Carbon Dioxide at 247 parts per million, et cetera... Humidity is at around 97.83% and falling, the snow will be done soon._

A snowflake landed on my tongue.

_Water 99.75% and trace other elements... The purity of the water suggests that there is likely no permanent established civilization; there is also a high possibility that the planet is uninhabited or that at least a large part of it is not inhabited._

I cautious took a step out of the TARDIS and scoped the area. I was in what looked like a large coniferous forest, large conifer trees went at far as the eye could see with snow covering practically everything. I took another step farther hesitantly, listening carefully at my surroundings before deeming it safe and law-official-free. I closed the door behind me, my footsteps quietly sifting in the snow as I walked under the trees. It was quiet in the forest, but maybe it was only the effect the snow gave as it fell, since it was more of a dry snowfall than anything else.

As in my memories, my breath didn't fog up in the air around me. I remember that for my breath to do that, it had to be a lot colder and if it was at that temperature, it wouldn't be snowing. Snow could only fall at specific temperature ranges that varied for each planet, but not by much...

* * *

Eventually, the snow slowly came to a stop, but I continued walking; a simple, mindless action that I felt unnecessary to cease. I never wanted to stop and I didn't feel tired. Why I kept going was beyond me, but I didn't stop walking for a long while. The only thoughts running through my head were something similar to: _left, right, left, right, branch-step around, left, right, left, right, step over hole, left, right, left, right, etc._

I had, had the feeling of being watched for some time before then, or, at the very least, I had become aware of it. It wasn't threatening and I felt no malice or any negative feelings sent my way. I suspected that whoever or whatever was watching me was merely curious. The watcher was neutral, not feeling inclined to be especially benevolent or malevolent to me, the intruder. Only my actions would be the deciding factor on that part. I had no wish to cause any trouble and continued to be as unobtrusive as possible as I continued my trek.

I had notice that here were many fur-covered animals and drab-colored birds, either this planet was in its winter cycle or it was perpetually in a winter cycle with few instances of a spring and a brief summer. The animals I did happen to see did not appear to be one of the sentient being(s) watching me. Some time had passed before I had to stop; I was tired. My exhaustion had finally caught up with me, after having so patiently trailing behind me like a small child or a shadow.

I had not slept in many days.

I leaned against a tree and sighed a long sigh, a voice in my head, that sounded like my sister, scolded me, _"If you sigh about your troubles, it doubles everyday; if you laugh about your trouble, it's a bubble blown away!" _I dismissed it with a mental wave, but I stopped sighing and concentrated on breathing and the trees around me instead. The tree I was leaning on, oddly enough, was warm and almost seemed to vibrate. I looked up at the tree and patted it in thanks for allowing me to rest against it, if however briefly, before continuing to force myself to walk.

I walked a long distance, but not nearly as long as I did before my brief respite. I heard what sounded like a deep groaning and breeze stirring the leaves fiercely. This last only a moment and stopped just as abruptly as it started. I was not exactly sure of the cause, but I had my suspicions. Was it only me or were the trees talking? There was the sound of wind, but no breeze stirred in the slightest. My sister alway told me that the easiest way to tell the difference between the trees talking to each other and the wind blowing, was the lack of wind. I was too tired to find enough energy to really care if the trees really were talking or not.

After some time, I came to what appeared to be a sheltered hole under the roots of one of the monstrous-sized trees. It appeared to be natural and not some trap constructed for my downfall. I leaned against the trunk of the trunk, only to feel that strange sort of warmth and vibrations gain. I could have sworn that I also felt a prodding at my consciousness. Tentatively, I reached out with my mind, as was habit when my kind met other possible telepathic species as well as just psychics in general.

Back at home, whenever two Gallifreyans met, there would be a courtesy mind-touch. If one wanted to, they could block the other out, but it was considered very rude to do so. I was pleasantly surprised when the tree returned the mental caress. It was to my pleasure when the surrounding trees quickly followed to do the same. _'Hello,' _they cried,_ 'it has been so long since another being has talked to us in this manner. You are welcome here, rest and be at peace.'_

_'Who are you?' _I tentatively called out, being careful of my intense psychic feedback. My telepathic abilities were still maturing and I was very susceptible to painful psychic feed back, fevers, and highly painful headaches that easily became migraines if left to their own devices. I had already reached my First Maturation when I turned one hundred, but even though I should have grown out of those symptoms like many others my age, the symptoms still persisted.

The elders didn't consider this unusual, since twins who were birthed naturally instead of being loomed were more likely to take longer to mature. When my sister and I turned two hundred years old, it was considered rather strange, but not too unlikely when the symptoms continued to persist. When we approached three hundred, we learned to keep quiet about our mental vulnerability. Later on when I continued my studies in becoming a theory-professor, I deduced that the reason behind this was that we were twins and, like other twins, were sharing mental experiences. Thus, one twin was not only dealing with an individual mind, but the minds of both twins.

We learned to put a figurative strainer on the mental link between the two of us, not shutting off the link completely, but putting a dampener on it; it was less painful that way. However, even though I was 406 years old, I still had some issues from time to time. Ever since I came back from the beginning of the universe though, I had been having them a lot less often. The back of my mind where there was usually a constant humming or a slight ache was quiet and calm. I panicked at first before managing to collect my wits back together again by theorizing that it was merely the distance from home that was causing the unsettling silence.

I tried not to think about the fact that it didn't used to matter how faraway I was before or that even when I was a Qwert, I remember still hearing that buzzing in the back of my mind. That fact was too scary to look at closely, because I had a sneaking suspicion that if I truly took time to think about what might be causing the silence, it might just break my fragile hold on sanity.

_'We are the Androzani. We live here and we welcome you, Wanderer.'_

_'I thank you.'_

_'Rest, we will guard your sleep. Your dreams will bring peace, not the darkness and worries that crowd in the back of you mind.' _As I nestled down in the cranny under the roots, the Androzani trees sang me to sleep, singing a song so beautiful, it makes you want to cry. It was a soundless song one could only hear in the mind, different from the trees back at home where it was audible. The song reminded me of home during the happiest adventures with my sister, catching those beatitude flies and swimming with the singing fish under a golden rainbow sky.

* * *

_**To Be Continued...**_

* * *

**Translations:**

*Zeeta ~ Seeker

**Explanations:**

*The name Zeeta is Greek, inspired by how the Doctor's alias was Theta Sigma and the Master's was Koschei, in this Fan Fiction, I am pretending that those Greek names are their real names. The Traveler's real name will come up later.

*Lee-own is the onomatopoeia for a peafowl; whether it was only for the peacocks or the peahens, it wasn't specified.

*A Paean is another name for a peafowl, I _think_ it might be Latin, I'm not for sure.

*I was inspired by the pigmy owl in '_The Gu__ardians of __Ga'Hoole'_ whose name was also Griffle.

*The bedroom is inspired by a room I've seen in the movie_ 'Tron.'_

*The door is able to be a rectangle on one side and a circle on another because it is constructed much like a weird circular pyramid.

*The metal bugs are modeled after a species of dragonfly found in the forests of a uninhabited planet. The metal birds are all supposedly aliens species of birds to the Traveler, but you would know them best as hummingbirds, chickadees, and nightingales. All of these metal creatures were made by the Thinker (Zeeta).

*The italicized words to the song that the nightingale sings is done by my own creation. The rest of the lyrics to the song can be found in the one-shot I did, further details can be found in the advertisement section.

*The trees mentioned, the flower mentioned, and the beatitude flies mentioned are all cannon. How I describe them is another matter, since little to no information about them is given, I had to fill in the blanks. More information can be found on the website Rassilon, Omega, and that Other guy.

*The chemical make up of the air is loosely based off of our own air with some adjustments made for the unknown planet that the Androzani trees occupy. Same can be said about the snowflake. The Fifth and Tenth Doctor (more so the Tenth than the Fifth) had a tendency to lick things to find out their composition. Fun Fact is that older time lords don't consider other time lords adult until they can taste their own tongue! The Traveler can't do that yet, and I suspect that doesn't really start to happen until the late five hundred's. More information can be found on the website Rassilon, Omega, and that Other guy.

*The saying I was going to use at first was 'sighing blows away your happiness' or some such, but when I Googled it, that was the closest thing to it. I wish I remembered what manga I read that had the original saying...

*The _Doctor Who_ episode, _The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe,_ wasn't very clear on how exactly they communicate. However, I interpreted it as they speak telepathically but only with those who can speak/are open telepathically too, unless they have a relay handy.

*All of the information concerning they customs between Gallifreyan and their minds is cannon, except for the twin part. Gallifreyans can be loomed into creation or be birthed naturally, although, the latter is quite uncommon. More information can be found on the website Rassilon, Omega, and that Other guy.

*A Qwert is a creature of my own creation. The living thing does not exact, but the term does. Qwert refers to the five keys on the upper left hand side of your keyboard on the top row. More about the Traveler, the Qwerts, and the beginning of the universe will come at a later chapter.

**Advertisements:**

**TITLE: **A Lament for Gallifrey

**AUTHOR: **Fan Fictional Authoress

**ID: **9404263

**SUMMARY: **A song was made before the Last Great Time War and it was only an innocent song about home and leaving it for the rest of the universe. After the devastating events, it was wondered whether or not it was prophetic and meant to help the mourning of the lost planet. A short poem for the planet Gallifrey, a side-shot for the fan fiction: The Traveler's Guide to the Universe.

**OPINION: **It's my work, not Kiley's, so it's not the usual outstanding quality you can find in the chapters of _'A Ring of Endless Light' _fan fiction. This wasn't so bad in my opinion. I got frustrated with other Gallifrey poems, and you know what they say to do if you can't find a story you want: make your own. This is a result of me procrastinating when it came to a certain fan fiction chapter due on the nineteenth of this month.

**Thought Process: **

This chapter should not exist. This chapter should still only be in my journal waiting to be typed after I had finished chapter 16 in my other fan fiction. This chapter, this story, the _side-shot _to this story, should not exist. This is the power of procrastination people.

Be afraid.

Be _very _afraid.

Or thankful.

Being thankful works too.

Anyway, I'm going to Washington D.C. on the 16 to the 19, so I'm going to be cutting it close. Please don't be too mad at me if I publish a day or two after the 19-or, quite possibly, on the 15, but I don't think you can complain about _that _now can you? Amongst other things, I got a question to ask you, _all_ of you: the new readers, the older readers, the readers who have ventured in from my other stories, all of you.

Do you like, or at least _read,_ the author's notes at the end of the chapter?

I don't mind taking to myself, but I don't do this purely for my own benefit (but that is a large reason why I do it). All it does is take up time to re-read the chapter and explain or translate parts of the chapter, advertise other fan fictions to keep you busy while you wait much like a magazine in a doctor's office (I said _a doctor _not _the Doctor, _so no pun), and give my thoughts.

So, if you like the author's notes...no, make that if you have _read_ the author's notes, put a _Doctor Who_ reference down in a review. Like _Bad Wolf, Sonic Screwdriver, always take a banana to a party, it's bigger on the inside, chameleon circuit, fish fingers and custard, celery lapel ornament, mile long scarf, etc._

Go ahead and run wild with it, just make sure to indicate somehow that you've read the author's note. If I get reviews that in no way indicate that you read the notes, then I might stop doing them. On that happy note... AHHHH, I'M GOING TO BE A SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL!

Once school starts, I'm going to go into a writer seclusion, meaning that there will be no updated during the school year except on holidays maybe, and sometimes not even then. Not to worry though, I'll start up again in the summer.

Happy Friday and DON'T BLINK! WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T BLINK! BLINK AND YOU'RE DEAD!

FFA, the Fan Fictional Authoress

_Date Submitted: Friday, July 12, 2013._


	3. Equivalent Exchange

_**All translations, explanations, advertisements, and thought processes are at the end of the chapter.**_

**_Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them._**

* * *

**_An Unnamed Planet at an Unknown Time Over Five Weeks Later._**

* * *

The Androzani trees were very clever and benevolent. I told them all about my adventures and what brought me here in the first place. They were more than happy to help me in any way they could. However, being trees, there was not much they _could_ do. They did encourage me and help raise my spirits. They sang beautiful songs that, in all likeliness, could never be replicated, even in memory. They also shared their wisdom and history as well as their future as they had been foretold.

Apparently, sometime in their distant future, hunters would come and, by means of acid rain, would vaporize them and turn them into fuel. Before I could despair for their fate or even _think_ about how terribly sad it was, they told me a traveler would come and save them. They were purposely vague so this fate wouldn't change. Telling me just enough so that I wouldn't fall into despair and do something foolish, but not some much that I would try something equally as foolish, like making it happen sooner or something.

I mostly spent much of my time outside of the TARDIS reading my sister's logs, because I was unable to bear the lack of Tarus, the lack of actual life. I had found out my sister had, indeed, visited here before. The trees I was talking with-if you could call it that-never met her personally, but their previous generation had and some of the memories were passed down from tree to sapling. It was also recorded in her logs as one of her earlier adventures.

_This was her favorite planet, her most beloved one._

A planet where the trees could actually 'talk' to you instead of giving off vague impressions or emotions. The trees could create things using their life fore; it was something incredibly strong, incredibly bright, and incredibly beautiful. Everything create was grown from wood, but it could be grown to look like and feel like and was-for all intents and purposes-anything that wasn't wood. They created a wooden queen to guide me along the forest, something that wasn't technically necessary but very appreciated.

I missed Tarus terribly, but the trees made it slightly more bearable with the distractions they offered. The distractions their planet offered. With its wild and untamed charm and its new and foreign life forms, it was treat for me to jot all my findings down during my resting periods. The cool weather was a rare pleasure that I didn't get to experience much anywhere else but here.

It was so lovely being here, I almost didn't want to leave. I almost wanted to give up my search for fixing Tarus and accept this new TARDIS. Actually, I had found myself almost seriously entertaining the idea of staying here for the rest of my natural life and leave with them when their appointed time came to leave this planet. I had almost forgot about my personal mission and my purpose. I almost forgot myself.

_Almost._

When a folded piece of paper fell out of the book and fell on to the ground, I remembered most clearly and most piercingly just who I was and what I was supposed to be doing. I realized just what exactly was happening to me too, a low psychic field had been emitting from the trees, slowly convincing me that I wanted to stay here, that I belonged here, and that I had always been here. They knew that my sister was never coming back and that I, the second best thing, might never be coming back. So, they used an old Time-Lord tactic to get me to trust them, to like them, and to do whatever they wanted me to do, which was to stay with them.

I had left my mind vulnerable and complete open to them, no barriers what-so-ever. They had full-access to my memories and knowledge without me even being aware of it. I had forgotten the old lesson that a door is open both ways. The Androzani trees were very clever and benevolent. They liked to help in any way they could. They encouraged me and raised my spirits. They shared their history, wisdom, and future. I knew so many things about them, I learned so many things about them. Whenever I wanted or needed to learn something, I made it a point to never miss anything, but I _did_.

_I had never realized just how lonely the trees were._

I could not stay though, and I told them this. I told them this, and they were unselfish enough to understand and respect my decision. The instructions were clear on that folded piece of paper-my sister knew I occasionally had trouble with the jargon in the manual-but what I saw scared me. I was so scared, because I knew what would happen if it went wrong, and no one would be able to save me this time, _Tarus _wouldn't be able to save me this time_._

I knew, logically, that what I had to do would work most likely, since my sister had to do it twice before. The first time it happened, my sister came in contact with a sentient computer virus that somehow got in the TARDIS. In order to save Tarus, Zeeta had to reboot the TARDIS. The second time, both Zeeta and Tarus were being chased by hostile alien hunters.

Apparently, somewhere in the universe, there was a person or a group of persons that wanted to add my sister to their collection of...things. She thought it was things that were kept alive, she couldn't be for sure though. When Zeeta rebooted Tarus that time, it was because the hunters were doing something that was scrambling Tarus's sentient computer mind. When Zeeta rebooted Tarus, she set her course around a seriously dangerous part of space. The hunters bio-scans disappeared part way through their chase of my sister and the TARDIS.

Anyway, my sister managed to get Tarus back-both times-by using a procedure that most Time-Lords would consider an unnecessary risk. Zeeta took the chameleon arch helmet and rerouted the circuitry. So that instead of memories being extracted in a fob watch and autonomy being rewritten, the memories would be copied and be put into the TARDIS data banks with any actual changes being made. The risky part was how much of the memories were copied and what was taken out.

If too many copies were made and not enough of them taken out, an overload of information would happen result resulting in mental failure and ceasing of all bodily functions. In other words: my brain would "short-circuit," my hearts would cease to beat, and I would die. If too little copies were made and too many were taken out, there would be major amnesia which carried the possibility of being dangerous to my health. It was a three-way road, but it was one that I was willing to take-death, loss of memories, or a possibility of success-but it still didn't change the fact of how _terrified _I was, because I remembered all too clearly what happened last time I used the chameleon circuit.

The helmet lowered onto my head and my breathing quickened, now very audible in the almost completely silent room. I felt the Wooden Queen squeeze my hand comfortingly and I said, "If I scream, ignore me. Don't try to stop the process, it will stop on its own once it's done, I promise." The hand froze before squeezing once more and let go of my own hand. I only had time to stuck in a quick, panicked breath before the Wooden Queen turned on the modified chameleon arch.

I had forgotten how much it hurt. And actually, I am rather surprised that my sister neglected to mention how _painful _the process really was. Even if it was no longer the chameleon arch, it still messed with the mind in ways where it was not meant to be messed with. The chameleon arch also messed with the body in ways that weren't natural at all. I was now breaking my vow that I would never go near the chameleon arch again. However, it was for the best, because unlike last time, it was to bring someone back from the dead, not cause someone's death.

* * *

_Something had gone terribly, horribly, and inexplicably _wrong.

I knew that it would hurt-I mean, all of my cells were being rewritten: it would be odd if that _didn't_ hurt. However, the pain lasted longer than it was supposed and it wasn't just my body that was in pain, but my mind too. It was like my memories didn't want to be stuffed into a fob watch with the Gallifreyan symbols for 'Traveler' on it. I could feel my mind being, literally, torn apart. I screamed in agony for close to seventeen minutes before the chameleon circuit had finally and successfully completed its job. Returning to my original self had been much more painful, has had the returning of my memories.

_They had both returned, just not in that order._

The Qwert body was in no way compatible for my time-lady mind, it started to burn up almost instantaneously. When I say that it was burning up, I don't mean that the sensation was like my mind was simply set on fire. Rather, it was more like a Red Carnivorous Maw came and started tearing my mind to shreds _while_ it was set on fire and somehow all through that supposed metaphor I managed to remain conscious. Lightning went down my spine, through my brain and into my body. It felt like that metaphoric fire was burning my flesh off and that acid was eating at the inside of my head. I was crawling back to the TARDIS to get to the zero-room, because I knew that once I did that, I would be able to continue my transformation painlessly.

Spasms started to wreck my body, making it harder to grip the grass and pull myself further. I could feel my fur disappearing off my body and my long tail shrinking back into my much smaller tail bone. The small trunk on my face melted away into a regular-sized Gallifreyan nose while my pointy, floppy ears also turned into normal Gallifreyan ones. My organs multiplied once again: two hearts, four kidneys, two stomachs, four intestines-two large and two small-two spleens, and an extra two ribs. My teeth rearranged themselves and changed their general shape.

I felt everything and felt nothing. I was in pain and that one sensation overloaded all else. I could feel my body start to fail as my organs got mixed up and fused together or split apart. My teeth suddenly started to multiply and fill my mouth much too full, dislocating my jaw. The tail bone kept shrinking and was slowly started to disintegrate my spine. One of my hearts failed completely and the second didn't feel that far behind.

_Regenerate! Regenerate!_

A feeble glow started appearing on my now disfigured limbs; it was barely even there. The rate of my regeneration was happening slower than my rate of death. I would die and stay dead, instead of being reborn. My lungs felt like they were ripping each other apart as I screamed and screamed and screamed. I screamed until my entire throat was dry and I was completely out of oxygen. I screamed out of pain until I could no longer scream.

When I didn't have the strength to scream out loud anymore, only my mental screams of anguish were left and even they were growing more and more faint. The pain was so great I was starting to forget who I was, what was going on, I was forgetting everything. Signs that my situation was extremely dire at this point. Pain was my world engulfed. The TARDIS hummed, distressed at my situation, feeling my death and the loss of the bond between the two of us. It dematerialized by its own power before rematerializing around me.

_'Get up,'_ Tarus begged in my mind, _'You must get up! You must go to the zero room or perish!'_

_'I...need you...move...room...c-closer...'_

_'I cannot replace the control room with the zero room while you are still in it. The best I can do is make this room smaller and have the door to zero room be a yard away. If it is much closer, there is a risk that it could compromise you.'_

_'Voice...in-in-inter...face...help...'_ Tarus's form was now able to appear, since the order had been issued. Tarus quickly dragged me into the zero room, heedless of the pain it caused, knowing that it would cause me more harm if she dithered around. She put me into the center of the room before closing the door. The zero room wasn't as affected by the laws and influences of the universe, I could feel my permanent death being hindered while my regeneration was being helped along. The room started to mend my lesser injuries cause by the chameleon circuit and regeneration gone wrong.

The room cut off all feeling, the pain was gone and I felt nothing. This nothing was different from before, then I had only felt pain and had felt so much of it, it was like I knew nothing else and it canceled into nothingness. Before it was just pain and nothing else, but now it nothing else at all. I was not connected to my physical body anymore-I passed out, you could say-but I was still aware of my surroundings.

Some of our people consider this a curse, their brain never being able to have silence. Our biology allows to need only one hour of sleep every eighteen hours, but while our body is resting, only half of our brain is doing the same-at most. I may be resting, but my brain is always awake, always aware. I knew what was happening to my body in the zero-room, I could feel it slowly mending as my regeneration went under way.

_I was dying._

I would never be the same person again, some other Gallifreyan would get up and walk away. _I _would never be coming back. I would be gone forever and no one would even know it, no one would even realize, because I was never going back home. I had predicted this, to both myself and to my sister-even if she didn't realize that I had truly believed it and meant it at the time. I was never going back home again, not as _me._ I probably only be able to do it as some other girl. Someone who nobody would recognize, even when our minds reunited. I would be dead and never coming back again, not _ever._

_And you know what the worst part was?_

I didn't care about the fact I was dying-well, I _did_ care, but I didn't care about dead as much in the face of something else that I cared about so much more than the fact that I would be _dead. _It wasn't just the dying part that got to me, it was the fact that I was _alone _when doing it. My first regeneration-my first _death_ out of many-and I was suffering alone. I was so scared and so sad and so ignorant of what would happen next, because I didn't know what would happen next.

_I remained in the dark, and in that darkness, I knew true fear._

* * *

I was almost too scared to try to see if it worked. I knew if it had failed, I would be crushed. I knew that if it had failed, I would stay here until I rotted or, more realistically, I would "stay" until I died of dehydration around forty days later after being delirious and suffering from severe hallucinations. The Wooden Queen tentatively raised the helmet off of my head and held my hand, I could feel her concern. I had to do it, I had to see if I had really failed this time, I had come too far and done too much not to.

"Voice interface," I croaked, scared at what I might find, "I am requesting assistance."

"Request noted, what would the Traveler require of 'Tarus?'" I let out a strangled cry of joy when Tarus's form appeared in her plain white clothes, long black-hair, and familiar silver-eyes.

"Your memory banks, how far do they go?"

"I exist in every point in time and space," Tarus stated dryly.

"I thought you couldn't crack jokes," I teased, giving a watery smile with tears running down my cheeks, my vision getting blurry, and my nose starting to run.

"I cannot," Tarus deadpanned, "Officially, my memory banks extend to five weeks, two days, four hours, seventeen minutes and thirty-six seconds. Would you like me to convert Earth time to mili-spans or centi-spans according to the Time Band?"

"No, it won't be necessary...So, unofficially, just...how far do your memory banks extend?"

"Unofficially, my memory banks extend to around 798 years-or 126.7 spans-in this voice interface, since previous memory banks are accessible until the last non-altered reboot."

I whooped, "You sly and cheeky girl!" Laughing, I hugged the Wooden Queen, "It worked, she's back! Tarus is alive! She's not dead!"

"The Traveler will be reminded that the voice interface cannot 'die' in the sense you give it, unless the TARDIS itself dies. Like a regeneration, I would return, just without the same memories as before."

"Tarus," I say seriously, my good mood dampening for a moment. "Regenerating is very much like dying to me. I leave my life behind, dead, and a new person saunters off. It's worse for you, though, because, like you said, you don't regain those memories back unless the reboot is altered. Even if I regenerate, I still have those memories, they are just stored away for safe-keeping until needed."

_'Has the Wanderer died before?'_ The Wooden Queen asked me somberly.

_'I have,'_ I answered faintly, refusing to look at either the Wooden Queen or at Tarus.

_'Did the Wanderer die alone?'_ I bit my lip and clenched my eyes shut as I sucked in a quick breath, trying to hold back the painful memories again.

_'...Yes, yes, I did.' _I didn't want to remember the scary and lonely moments of finding myself regenerated and alone in the zero-room or having to figure out how to cope with this new me by myself. Desperate for a distraction, I asked Tarus aloud, "How long until you are completely rebooted?"

"49.3 micro-spans."

"Four days? Well, I will make the best of those four days, then." I turned to the Wooden Queen and declared, _'I will spend the remainder of those seventy-two hours and forty-odd minutes with all of you.'_

* * *

_****__An Unnamed Planet at an Unknown Time _**Four Days Later.**

* * *

The Wanderer spent those days with the Androzani trees with a savoring zeal. She spent the long mornings and afternoons doing her best to sketch pictures of the forest and talk with them about their history. She learned much about them and their rare visitors. In turn, she told them about her forests back on Gallifrey. The trees knew all things the Wanderer was telling them and more besides, because the Traveler, Zeeta, had already told them all about her home-planet.

The trees knew, however, that the Wanderer _needed_ to tell someone about home, that the story telling was more for her benefit than theirs, even if she didn't realize this. The time that the Wanderer spent away from her home had caused her many emotional deficiencies, and Tarus's 'death' hadn't done her any favors.

She spent the long nights pointing out distant stars and planets as well as telling the trees all the Wanderer knew about them. The trees understood this as the Wanderer's way of returning their kindness by telling them of possible suitable places for them to go after they are forced to leave their home. It had to be said, however, that the trees, at one point, had been planning to use the Wanderer as a mother ship.

She was strong, not weak like the males or inadequate like the children. The only thing that had spared the Wanderer from this fate was the memory of her sister; how Zeeta would have reacted to that decision held them back. Zeeta, the Traveler, a time-lady, a Gallifreyan with the soul of a tree, had understood them on a level no mammal had ever been able to before.

Even the Wanderer, the Thinker, the twin of a time-lady who became one herself because of the mental connection between the two of them, could not compare or touch the level that her sister had been able to. Although, the Wanderer was a very close second. It was only because the Traveler had the heart of one of their own, that the Wanderer would be spared and that the trees would wait for the one who had been foretold would save them.

All too soon for the trees-let alone the Wanderer herself-it was time for the last link of the Traveler to leave. It was the end of the fourth day and the start of the fifth day. The trees did not understand why the Wanderer had to leave the moment that the 'Tarus' had finished rebooting. This 'Tarus' was very special to the Wanderer, even if it was slightly defective.

'Tarus' was a TARDIS whose chameleon circuit was broken, so 'she' was stuck in her natural form. In the Wanderer's opinion, all TARDISes naturally look like the wardrobes and clothes closets found in twenty-third century Earth. Not like the wardrobes made out of wood and doors on hinges as seen in previous centuries, but wardrobes made with a metallic material and sliding doors. 'Tarus' had always been there for the Wanderer, even when the Traveler had not.

The Wanderer had said she had died alone and she truly believed that. However, the trees thought differently as they watched the TARDIS leave with the Wanderer safely inside it. 'Tarus' had been there for the Wanderer when 'she' dragged the barely conscious time-lady into something called the zero-room. The voice interface had been there to support the Wanderer during and after her first regeneration. The trees may not have liked the fact 'Tarus' was the one who was taking away the forest's last link to the Traveler, but they could not have found a better guardian for the young and inexperienced time-lady.

* * *

_**To Be Continued...**_

* * *

_**Translations:**_

*Zeeta ~ Seeker

_**Explanations:**_

*Most of the information about the Androzani trees is either from _'The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe,' _the Doctor Who wiki page, or my speculation.

*I have no idea if that's even possible to reroute the circuitry in the chameleon arch or if the chameleon arch could potentially be deadly. I _think _my theory is sound-assuming that the last sentence _is_ plausible-since it seems to make sense to me, but that might not mean anything.

*Note that Traveler will always have a lot more trouble with Time-lord/lady biological things, like regenerating, senses, psychics, and other things that will become more evident and the reason behind it will be explained in greater detail as the story goes on.

*The Qwert is a creature of my own creation, I will try to put up a picture of it later on a Facebook page once I set one up for my Fan Fiction account.

*Gallifreyans have got multiple organs of virtually everything including two more ribs than humans. They have two of most of the organs that humans have only one of, and four of the organs that humans have only two of. Aside from the extra ribs a Gallifreyan's skeleton is almost identical to a human's. They have only one liver.

*Gallifreyans can enter self-induced sleep trance in which breathing, heart beat, and brain activity are all reduced to an absolute minimum. While in this trance a time-lord/lady can ponder complex ideas without any outside distractions. Twenty minutes in this state is equivalent to eight hours of sleep for a human. Thus they only need about one-six hours of sleep every two days and some Gallifreyans can get by on a decade of sleep every one hundred years. Others become tired after only being awake for four days, most prefer one hour of sleep a day.

*Gallifreyan seconds, minutes, days, and years are not identical to the ones used on Earth. A Gallifreyan month is probably equal to twenty-seven days. A Gallifreyan day is probably equal to eighteen hours, nine hours of daylight and nine hours of night. The length of the hours are dependent on the season and location. A Gallifreyan cycle (year?) is equal to twenty-three of our years, approximately.

*Gallifreyans have more than one stomach and are not as vulnerable to malnutrition as Humans are. Some, if not all, believe that only one meal a day is perfectly normal. Despite this, their metabolism is relatively close to a humans and they can eat the same foods. They can easily go two days without water and a week without food is not a major strain. In fact, they sometimes sit in thought for days without food or water. However 40 days without food or water will make a Gallifreyan delirious.

* Because Gallifrey is located in Inner Time-i.e. closer to the center of the universe-Gallifreyans measure local time according to the Time Band. They use spans, which was also used by the Sisterhood.

1 nano-span = .2 seconds  
1 micro-span = 200 sec (3.3 min)  
1 milli-span = 55.6 hours (2.3 days)  
1 centi-span = 23 days  
1 span = 6.3 years  
1 kilo-span = 6,341 years

*When the Traveler said "four days," she was referring to four Gallifreyan days, which-if you recall-were only eighteen hours long.

*The Traveler's description of the natural form of the TARDIS is how I would describe it after I saw a picture of one without the chameleon circuit. The links to the pictures are on my profile.

_**Thought Process:**_

This might very well be the second to last update [of this fan fiction] until I go into my great big hiatus in honor of my senior year of high school, bleh. I don't know, though, I'll do my best to get another chapter up before that time, we'll see. Anyway, on to less depressing topics.

The Doctor is finally appearing next chapter! Yay! :D

We won't be starting on follow Doctor Who cannon until chapter six or seven, maybe. It's leaning towards seven though, we'll see.

Sorry about the short chapters though, there are short because chapter is focusing on one different theme. I don't really want to have more than one theme per chapter. You can kind of guess the theme by the name of the chapter in this fan fiction. The theme of this chapter is: Regaining Tarus in Return for Regaining Painful Memories as well as Losing Some New Friends.

Kind of a mouthful though, isn't it? :/ That's why the chapter has a different name.

Well, I am super happy, because for my birthday, I got raspberry-not pink!-All Star Converse Chuck Taylor Trainers! :D I was so happy, I couldn't stop smiling. I haven't been that genuinely thrilled about something since I got a couple of tickets to take myself and my sister to the 3D Hobbit movie or since I got pumpkin pie with pumpkin pie flavored ice cream for my birthday or since I got my first and only phone (which is only about a month old, if that). As you can tell, I am a person of simple needs and simple pleasures.

You should have seem my face when my grandparent told me that my uncle Denny used to drag the toes of his trainers so he could ruin them. Apparently, he did this just to get new shoes so he didn't have to wear said trainers because in those day only poorer families would buy those shoes. He didn't want to be called 'poor' because of the shoes he wore. I was so upset with him, that if he was there, I probably would've thumped him good. I have always wanted trainers for years now-even before I met and feel in love with Doctor who-and he had them and _ruined_ perfectly good shoes! D:{

Le sigh.

Anyway, enough of my same-old-same-old stuff. Things are going to get interesting now, hold on for the ride people!

Happy Friday,

FFA, the Fan Fictional Authoress

_Date Submitted: Friday, August 2, 2013._


	4. Doctor John Smith

_**All translations, explanations, advertisements, and thought processes are at the end of the chapter.**_

**_Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them._**

* * *

**_Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Noon. May 18, 1883._**

* * *

The Traveler adjusted her straw hat as she strolled down the main path through the rice paddy fields. Her dress swirled about her as a breeze passed by and she looked with some concern at one of the homes that had toppled down from the earthquake. The Dutch family she was staying with, the Goossens, had told her that this was a common occurrence as of late. This worried the Traveler, she had a feeling that something big was happening; she just didn't know what.

She had been here for a day already, just seeing the sights and talking with the locals. The Goossens had been scandalized when they saw her preparing to sleep on the side of the road, and they had her stay at their home saying something along the lines of, "It is not proper for a lady of such high class as yourself to sleep in the ditches like a beggar." When the Traveler asked what they meant by that, they gestured to her clothes and the quality of her hair, especially the blonde's hair.

The Traveler then noticed that compared to the other females, her hair had been better cared for considering she had used modern products on it like shampoo and conditioner. Of course she would be considered someone of the higher class. The quality of her clothes compared to other's didn't help either, her always had the appearance of being new when taken out of the TARDIS's wardrobe, considering most of the time they were only worn once or twice. The Traveler had chosen one of the least elaborate looking dresses she could find since her testing of the air earlier proved it very warm indeed.

_28 degrees Celsius, nitrogen at 78.08%, oxygen 20.95%, argon 0.93%, carbon dioxide 292.1 parts per million, ex cetera... humidity at about 55% and water vapor at about 0% -no chance of rain._

The Traveler couldn't pinpoint the exact year, but she knew that it was around the 1880's-or was it the 1890's?-and long sleeves were the common fashion at this time. She wouldn't be able to tolerate thicker material, since she would over-heat very easily since her internal temperature was only about 15.5 degrees Celsius-or about sixty degrees Fahrenheit. So naturally, she choose the aesthetic style of dresses.

Her dress was an olive green cotton voile material, a light fabric that wouldn't cause the Traveler to swelter under the heat. The collar of the dress dipped down to slightly below her collar bones instead up and around the under side of her chin, like a choker. Following the design of other aesthetic dress, there was no corset, just an olive green belt made of the same fabric as the rest of the dress attached by a circular metal buckle. Everything was adequately enough covered so society wouldn't cry out in outrage and light enough so the Traveler wouldn't get heat stroke.

Her cover was that she was Wanda Kowalski, a rather clever name on her part she thought, as it caused no little bouts of amusement every time someone said it. She was a simple traveler from Poland and if anyone asked her too much about her past, or her plans for the future, or just too much about her in general, she would merely wave them off with the statement, "I am just passing through, no need for your concern."

She was heading towards the village again, this time to gather food from the market. The blonde was thinking about leaving soon, even with all the trouble happening here with the earthquakes. She had a gut feeling that this point in time was fixed and that there was nothing she could do. She also felt that time was slowly running out for these people, that within the next few days a catastrophe of epic proportions was about to happen. But, what could it be?

Shaking her head with a frustrated sigh-and almost displacing her hat!-the Traveler determinedly marched down the path to the town market, unwilling to let sad thoughts plague her mind any longer. This was supposed to be a break from sad events and sad happenings, so she should be happy, _everyone_ should be happy! "Oh, for Rassilon's Sake, get _over_ yourself!" The Traveler growled underneath her breath, "And stop acting like an othering Other..." After a long pause, the time-lady snorted with laughter, thinking about her sister's reaction to hearing the Traveler swear like she just did.

_'She would wash out my mouth with soap for a week and then Time-Lord wrestle with me until I cried, "Rungar! Rungar!" Although I never really understood why people would cry out, "Rungar protect us" and the like when he is a criminal imprisoned in Shada...' _Grey-eyes narrow in thought, she just about walked by the strange short-haired man without noticing him. Had she not almost fell down the same hole he was stuck in, she would have. Letting out a yelp, she danced away from the sink hole, only to fall on her backside.

Letting out quiet curses, she got back up and inched back to the gap in the ground. Peering over the edge, she caught sight of a person decked in what would be considered strange black garb. He seemed to be asleep sitting up with his arms and face resting on his knees...or dead. Concerned, the Traveler called down to him, "Hello? Can you hear me? If you can, you need to wake up. It isn't safe for a person to fall asleep in the heat if they are dehydrated. Hey, come on, I need you to answer me, so I know whether I need to retrieve a doctor or a mortician."

She received no answer from the stranger.

Irritated, she decided to try one more thing before she really did go get the mortician. Looking around the trail, it took her a while to find it-with its perfect shape, size, and weight-since its color blended in with the dirt surrounding it. After testing the heft of the stone, she leaned over the lip of the hole and dropped the stone on the man's head.

It landed on his head with a slightly audible _T__hump! _which was not too audible-thank goodness-because that would mean he had been hit in the noggen too hard. Since it was a quiet _Thump! _that her time-lord enhanced senses were barely able to detect, it seemed like the man would be just fine. He might get a bump on the head, but he would live.

If, of course, he wasn't already dead.

"Oi!" The man yelped, obviously startled from what must have been a deep sleep induced by the heat of the sun.

"Oh good, you _are _alive!" The Traveler cheered, "For a moment there, I was worried that I really _would _have to go fetch a mortician."

"So you toss a stone on my head?" The man whined almost pitifully.

"It's only a pebble, you big baby," the Traveler teased, not apologetic in the least, "I tried other ways to get your attention to see if you were alive, but you were too deeply asleep. How long have you been down there?"

"A while," the man answered vaguely in a nonchalant tone.

"Well, it must have been a long while if you were too tired to keep calling out for help," she prodded, unimpressed with his unhelpful answer.

"It was only for a day! It's really hard it see anything in the early hours of the morning," he defended himself.

"Ooh, a bad spot of trouble you have gotten yourself in for the most part. You are lucky to even be alive! Most people who fall into sink holes suffocate, in fact, this hole doesn't even look that deep and it's mostly hollow too! Why didn't you pull yourself out of there? I mean you are tall enough to reach the top and look strong enough to pull yourself out, what is the hold up?"

"Well, you see, I'm a bit...stuck," the man laughed in an embarrassed manner. "The ground is a bit soggy here from the water in the rice paddy fields, I sank into the mud and the more I struggled, the more swamped I got, you see?"

"Oh, well that makes things a bit more difficult. I will be right back," the Traveler told the unfortunate man, before getting up and rushing back down the way she came, an idea starting to form in her head. Well, actually, by the time she reached the small hut that served as a supplies shed, around 7,432 ideas came and went in her head, with all the potential negatives, positives, and neutrals going with them. The Traveler had finally settled on a pulley system of some sort.

She needed rope, lots of rope, and maybe a few cylindrical objects too while she was at it.

The hole had looked to be around five feet deep, give or take a few inches, but rounding was okay, as long as she rounded up. Rounding the hole's depth to five feet and doing the mental math was much, much easier than keeping the depth at around four feet, nine inches, two point five-six centimeters, and...well, you get the idea. Back to the original point, the hole was around five feet deep.

The Traveler guessed the man to weigh in at around 180 pounds. The Traveler could not lift that much weight by herself, so a first-class pulley was out. Ninety pounds was a bit of a stretch for her, so a second-class pulley wouldn't work. But, but maybe a compound pulley would do, it would take a lot of effort on her part, but if she really tried, the Traveler was sure that she could manage to lift sixty pounds, no big deal.

So, now she had to know how long the rope needed to be for the compound pulley.

_'Assuming I stand three feet away from the hole, held the rope at about five feet high on average, the hole is five feet deep, and that it is four feet across, I have my variables... Now let's see:_

_(5 x 5) + (3 x 3) = 34_

_34 + 2 = 36_

_√(36) = 6_

_So the first segment is six feet long. The next segment is the depth of the hole squared plus half of its length across..._

_(5 x 5) + (2 x 2) = 29_

_29 + 7 = 36_

_√(36) = 6_

_6 x 2 = 12_

_Twelve feet is the second segment's length. The next segment is going to have to make do with only that post that's about a foot away from the hole, since I can't find any cylindrical objects. The post is about four feet high, if I had to guess, and about a foot in diameter. The rope would probably reach up to three of those four feet, so:_

_(3 x 3) + (1 x 1) = 10_

_10 + 6 = 16_

_√(16) = 4_

_(3.14 x 1) + (4 x 2) = 11.14_

_11.14 feet is the third segment's approximate length, while the last one is half the length of segment two. So now I just need to add all the segments together:_

_6 + 12 + 11.14 + 6 = 35.14_

_The total length of the theoretical rope ended up to be around thirty-six feet. So that meant that I need to find a rope that thirty-six feet or longer,'_ the Traveler concluded. Her whole mental thought process had only taken her about the four and a half minutes it took to search the whole shed and find where the large coils of rope were stored. Her carefully counted out each coil of rope by one foot sections, guessing pretty accurately how long each coil was.

_'Fifty-five feet, thirteen feet, twenty-two feet, six feet, ten feet, forty-two feet, nineteen feet, thirty-nine feet...Well, this last one is probably as close as I'm going to get without connecting two rope coils together...' _With a groan of effort, the blonde hoisted the thirty-nine foot coil of rope onto her shoulder and quickly ran back to the sink-hole where the poor man waited patiently for her return.

"I am back, this should help." The Traveler uncoiled one end of the rope and tossed down to the man who caught it surprising easy for a person who was mostly stuck to where he sat.

"Oh, thanks, when's everyone else arriving? How many people did you find to help pull me out?" The man asked cheerfully as he tied the rope snugly around his mid-drift.

"Enough," the Traveler answered, thankful that being busy setting up the makeshift compound pulley was enough of an excuse for her lacking explanation to her short answer to the man's questions. "Here grab ahold of the part of the rope too, this should help make lifting you easier, I'll only need to use force that is equivalent to a third of your weight rather than a force equal to your weight..."

"Wait, you're talking like you're doing this by yourself," the man noted suspiciously.

The Traveler pretended that she didn't hear him as she exclaimed, "One, two, three, pull!" As soon as the last syllable left her mouth, she strongly pulled back on the rope. The man grab the part of the rope that ran back to him after looping around the post and helped pull on it too, to help make the load a bit easier for the woman. After a solid two minutes and forty-three seconds of yanking on the rope on both ends, the man made it safely out of the hole and started to untie himself. The Traveler trotted over to the other side of the hole and immediately started to help him.

"Thank you for helping, you didn't have to do it by yourself. I could've waited a bit longer for you to get some extra help, you look like you've been done in after pulling me out of that sink-hole," the man frowned, looking at bit concerned for the blonde woman.

"N-no, it is fine, you have been waiting long enough as it was for some to come along and help you. You did not need to wait any longer." The Traveler smiled thinly, hiding her shaking hands, already starting to get over-heated in the hot weather and from the physical labor.

"Well, thank you, I owe you one."

The Traveler frowned, confused at the unfamiliar phase, "One what? I am sorry, but it is hard for me to understand your strange manner of speech." She was bluffing, the Traveler understand his unusually modern way of speaking surprising well, but it seemed easier to go this route than to explained that she understand some but not all of the man's terminology.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that, I'm not from around here. I was just saying that I owe you a favor," the man clarified.

"Oh," the Traveler breathed in realization, feeling rather dense. "No, it is quite all right. Do you have any family or friends with you at the moment? They must be worried about since you have been detained here for a day and a half." The man's originally cheerful demeanor dimmed to a much sadder emotion that he tried to mute as much as possible.

"No, no, I'm...I'm by myself right now. I'm a bit of a traveler, you see, move around a lot."

"Ah, I see..." The Traveler hated the subtle expression on his face, the one he was trying to hard to hide: the look of stifled loneliness. She knew that look well; the Traveler had see it on her sister's face may times before when Zeeta left or returned from exploring the universe. "She always knew very well how loneliness felt, since she had been feeling it acutely for a long time now. The next thing she said can from sheer impulse, " Well, if you are not busy, would you like to go into town with me? I have some shopping to do in the market, but I would like to explore the town. I am also a traveler and this is my second day here. I have not had the chance to see much, would you like to join me?"

The look of the man's face showed that he saw her kind invitation for what it was, a lonely soul reaching out to another lonely soul. "Fantastic," the man grinned, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners as he beamed at the Traveler enthusiastically. "The last time I was here, I didn't really have to time to meet the people, see the culture, or anything else really."

"Oh? If it is not too forward of me to ask, what were you visiting here for then?" The young time-lady leaned in, interested by the enigmatic man.

"Business, some people were causing a bit of trouble here and I had to stop them...I was a different man then, a lot younger," the man answer nostalgically. He abruptly turned to the blonde next to him, "And what about you, then? What are you here for? Who are you staying with: family, friends, alone?"

"I am just wandering," the Traveler gave a humorless smile, "The 'Wandering Wanda,' I suppose you could call me. I'm just by myself too right now. I cannot go back home anymore, no place for me to go to now." The Traveler looked up from her hands towards the sky and studied it, as if trying to see the planet light-years away. "I just kind of visit places, never stay very long, always moving, always more to see.

"It is not half bad, you know, traveling the uni... United Kingdom, the Americas, Asia, anywhere, really, the entire...everything. The people I stay with, they are good people, nice folk, you know? The Goossens are sweet people, ordinary, everyday people, the best kind." The man studied her intently, frowning. He had heard her little slip up, he had noticed, and he wondered about this strange blonde. Who was she? Who was she really?

"Who did you say you were again?" The man asked her, and when she looked at him, startled, he gave a a charming and friendly smile. The Traveler hesitated only briefly, studying the man's face, one that looked so familiar to her as if she had seen him before. He looked honest, and he didn't radiate any malevolent intentions in the slightest. Inexplicably, the time-lady found herself trusting this strange man and his charismatic smile and benign personality.

"Wanda Kowalski, it is pleasure to meet you," she smiled, a full one this time instead of the half ones she had been doing. The Traveler liked this man, sympathized with him, and started to put him up for consideration. She couldn't be for sure, but maybe, maybe he could join her...?

"I'm the Doctor, just the Doctor."

The Traveler's smile slid off her face, her defenses raised, alarmed, "Just...the Doctor, nothing else, no other names?"

The man-the _Doctor-_noticed her change in attitude immediately, and quickly said, "Er, yeah, I'm nothing special, just a simple doctor. Doctor _John Smith_, is something..._wrong_, Ms. Kowalski?"

"Oh," the Traveler's face flamed in embarrassment, "I apologize, it is just that, for a moment there, I swore I had seen you before and thought you were someone else, panicked a bit, you know? I ran into a bloke around two months ago, and I ran away. I got scared, you know? It might have been only a misunderstanding, but it would have been a very awkward situation, otherwise."

"So I see...and _where_ are you from, then, _Ms. Kowalski?" _

"Um, I... my name is Polish."

"But you don't sound very Polish, now do you?" The Doctor pressed, leaning in slightly, causing the Traveler to start to panic and get worried.

"I have told you before, I travel a lot." The man held her gaze for a long time, eyes dark as if asking her questions she couldn't even being to considering answering without telling him _everything._ But just as suddenly, just as mysteriously, the look vanished. It disappeared off his face as if it had never been there...and it made the Traveler all the more intrigued when he merely accepted her excuse, no questions asked.

"Alright," the Doctor backed off with a beaming smile.

"'Al-alright?'" The Traveler asked, dazed.

"That's right, 'alright.' So where do you want to go to in town first? Let's head to the food market last, yeah? The food might stay fresher that way, because I'm guessing it's a long way back to the Goossens."

"Y-yes, I...yes," she didn't really know what to say to the Doctor, as strange as he was, the Traveler trusted him and liked him a lot. She also respected the fact that he knew where boundaries were and that he didn't try to cross those lines like so many others had. She wanted to learn more about this man, leaving could wait a bit, just until she satisfied her curiosity. "So, you said that you traveled a lot?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Could you, would tell me about some of the places you have been to?"

"Sure I could! There was this one time when I visited the artist Edvard Munch, a strange bloke, he was. I'm a big fan of his work and one day..."

* * *

_**Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Late Afternoon. May 19, 1883.**_

* * *

"Oh, hold still, would you? The sketch is almost done," Hans sighed, exasperated with this 'Doctor' character. "At this rate, I cannot see myself being able to create a proper portrait, so this will have to do."

"You really did not have to do this, Hans, really. Maybe this is a bit...unnecessary?" The Traveler suggested hesitantly with great uncertainty. Hans, the eldest son in the Goossen family, had been in a bad mood last night when she returned with the Doctor to spend the night with them. The Goossen family had been welcoming and friendly to the Doctor; Hans had been that way too, but he had been a bit cold while doing it, a bit forced.

The Traveler wondered if Hans considered the Doctor-Mr. Smith-to be a threat. His posturing and defensive body-language certainly hinted at it, and Mr. Smith caught on rather quickly to it since he mirrored it as well. The question was, though: what did Hans consider Mr. Smith a threat to? As far as the Traveler could tell, the strange Doctor wasn't a threat to Hans's family, life, or social standing. However, she had her suspicions to what it might be, considering that the testosterone levels seemed to spike whenever they were in the same room.

The Traveler could, quite literally, smell it.

Speaking of scents, Mr. Smith smelled very familiar; an odd phrase to say around sentient species whose sense of smell isn't as highly developed as a time-lord's or even a Gallifreyan's to be sure. When the Traveler became a time-lady, her original seven senses had been enhanced and then she had twenty-seven senses instead of just seven senses. The Traveler liked been around Mr. Smith, because the man felt pleasant to be around with.

Besides his lovely personality, there was that familiar and comforting scent that made her want to trust him. Most humans smelled of sweat, pheromones, artificial scents like shampoo or perfume, and bits and piece of the enviroment that they surround themselves by. Mr. Smith had all of that going for him, the sweat, pheromones, and such, but it was different. Humans had different scents-no two were exactly alike-but they were all similar in their own rights.

Mr. Smith's scent was different and not similar to the other humans' scents, ergo he was not human or-at the very least-not completely human.

The Traveler also strongly suspected that Mr. Smith was a species she had met before since not only was his general scent familiar, but also his presence. By presence, she meant his mental presence, which was-again-very strong for a human, if he even was one. He seemed to have amazing control over his mind and the presence exuded, which would account for some of his charisma.

The Traveler had been spending ever spare moment with Mr. Smith, completely and utterly amazed by him. His clever mind intrigued her, he had been in all kinds of situations, but he had always managed to find a solution. Even better was the fact that he always tired to find the most peaceful and beneficial solution for everyone as much as possible. Mr. Smith loved traveling and discovering new things, best of all, he appreciated it.

By mid-afternoon the next day, the Traveler had started to seriously consider having him as a traveling companion to see the wonders of the universe with her. She was afraid with how he might answer and react to her offer-terrified even-but she still wanted to try. The time-lady genuinely liked him and his company; she had started to grow attached to him just like she had grown attached to the human boy, Gideon. She like the enigmatic Doctor so much, she wanted something of him to remember him by if he decided that he didn't want to join her...Which was why Hans was drawing a sketch of Mr. Smith.

"No, really, Wanda, it is quite alright. I do not mind at all," Hans turned to her and smiled brightly. When the Doctor's voice piped up though, Hans appeared to be valiantly fighting back a scowl.

"I don't mind much either, _Ms. Kowalski_, but I do have to ask, why do you want a picture of me?"

"...I want a momento of you, if case things do not work out the way I hope they will."

"And in what way do you hope they work out?" The Doctor asked crossing his arms and causing Hans to make a frustrated noise, whether is was from the Doctor's constant shift, something else, or both, the Traveler had no idea.

"Well, I hope that we could travel together, Doctor." Mr. Smith froze mid-shift, staring at the blonde for a second before beaming brilliantly at her.

"Oh, fantastic. That is _fantastic!" _The man laughed joyfully, "I was thinking about how I was going to ask you to be my companion, and you've went and done it for me, fantastic!" The Traveler started laughing too at his enthusiasm, she brought a hand up politely cover her mouth with the back of said hand, but it wasn't much use. Hans interrupted the moment by standing up and striding off without a word. The time-lady looked at him with a concerned eye, while the man watched the boy with a slight scowl on his face. "Just so you know, if you're coming with me, he's not invited."

"No, I have not even considered that notion, he would be able to bear being inside my ship."

"_Your _ship?" Mr. Smith asked, laughing in a disbelieving manner. "No offense to you, _Wanda_, but why your ship and not mine?"

The Traveler bit her lip, "Chances are, John, that the ship you are thinking off is not _my _ship. Tarus is so much more than that."

"'Tarus?'" The Doctor repeated seriously.

"Yes, that is was I call her."

"Can we go see your ship? I would like to what you have been traveling in all this time...what I might be traveling in." He said it evenly and openly, but the Traveler knew that Mr. Smith severely doubted that he would be traveling in her ship, most likely because he thought it wouldn't be very special.

She couldn't wait to prove him wrong.

"Why not? We could do it right now," the blonde smiled invitingly before leading the way to her TARDIS, unsuspecting of what she might discover while the man who followed her had his suspicions and greatest desire about to be proven true.

* * *

**_To Be Continued..._**

* * *

**_Explanations:_**

*I have a picture of the dress which I will provide later once I create a Facebook for myself, as soon as I get it up I will tell you what it is called.

*Remember the information about the air that the Traveler had tasted with all those percentages? Thank Julia Caesaris, a lovely author who makes some of the best _Do__ctor Who_ fan fictions ever. Totally worth checking out, she's in my favorite authors section.

*A Gallifreyan and time-lord's internal body temperature really is that cold, however, their skin temperature feels the same as a human's. They find room temperature-around seventy degrees farenheit-to be very uncomfortable. They can, however, survived extremely hot and extremely cold temperatures.

*The name "Goossen" is a common Dutch surname, the reason is is Dutch is because the Traveler is in the Dutch-Indies.

*Hans is a common Dutch names for boys.

*The name Wanda is what Gideon calls the Traveler, it is a common Polish name. The name Kowalski is also very common, it's direct translation would be "Blacksmith," i.e. "Smith" in English.

*Cotton Voile is a fabric that is very similar to silk, only it's made of cotton.

*Going to Indonesia around the time of Krakatoa's eruption was one of the Doctor's pre-Rose adventures. This explains the picture Clive later found. The Doctor had visited Indonesia in previous regenerations as he had hinted to the Traveler.

*Using the names Rassilon, Omega, and Other were considered blasphemy around the time of the Time-War. Their profanity is is very funny sounding like "othering Other."

*The Doctor was not asleep, but rather is a deep state of mediation that time-lords would enter so they can think better and faster with little to no outside distraction bothering them. Twenty-minutes in this state is equal to eight hours of sleep.

*Gallfreyans and time-lord's actually _can _think up to 7,432 ideas within a few minutes easily, according to 'Rassilon, Omega, and that Other guy' website. Check it out!

*I'm sorry about the math, but I really, _really,_ **_really_** wanted to show you her thought process, I tried to do it using words, and it wasn't really working out, sorry.

*Edvard Munch is a really famous painter from back in the 19th century, his most famous painting is _The Scream._

*Gallifreyans originally have seven senses: Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, Touch, Acceleration/Balance (they can feel the turn of the planet that they're on), and Sense of Time (less life forms have this ability to sense the passage of time too, but Gallfreyans and time-lords have it down to seconds). The moment the Gallifreyans go through the procedure to become a time-lord, they have twenty-seven senses.

*Apparently a Gallfreyan and time-lord's natural scent is very similar to honey. Visit "Rassilon, Omega, and that Other guy" for more information.

**_Thought Process:_**

Ooh! We're getting closer to when the Doctor meets the time-lord that he was so desperately looking for. The Traveler has a lot of explained to why she ran away from the Doctor in the first place. Don't worry, I have a plan for them so they can travel to together in the same TARDIS without getting rid of Sexy or Tarus.

It's a brilliant idea really, which is unusual coming for me; the Doctor's cleverness must be rubbing off on me.

It's impossible to listen to him without feeling smarter or dumber when he is talking or explaining about his ideas/theories/whatevers.

I've got a lot of ideas planned for this story, and once they meet Rose, my update will be much, much fast, but that won't be for a while yet. Since the Doctor needs to explain that both the Traveler and him are the last of their kind, and the Traveler need to have her subsequent break down. It's a lot like Bella Swan's in _New Moon,_but hopefully a lot better written and less teenage angsty._  
_

We'll see.

One thing is for sure though, the Traveler won't be forgiving the Doctor for a long time. She'll stay with him for reasons that will be revealed later, but she won't be forgiving him. There will be a lot of psychological torture all around, so you'll be in for a lot of fun if you like those things. We'll have one more chapter before the Doctor confesses about it, so head's up for those of you who don't.

On a brighter note, I finally get to see my sister after months on not seeing her! Huzzah! I wasn't able to go see her on her birthday a few weeks ago, but I get to see her tomorrow and give her the belated birthday presents.

I'm also taking my driver's ed, now! By the time I'm eighteen in a few months, I'll have my driver's permit hopefully which will be super awesome. So, please keep me in your prayers so I don't kill myself while driving in parking lot? I'm never driven a car before and have on started one a handful of times.

I'm honestly terrified and the gory educational videos aren't helping. D:

I'll try to update my other stories besides this one and 'A Ring of Endless Light.' I've been neglecting them lately. A very bad habit that I am trying to break.

Happy Saturday,

FFA, the Fan Fictional Authoress

_Date Submitted: Saturday, August 10, 2013._


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